Decay

[GEORDIE]

I took this picture of a ruined jetty and would appreciate some comments and criticism. I quite like the lines of the pylons and the movement of the waves,your thoughts please.
Colin.

[Designer]

Another Colin? Good grief! (ha-ha)

The first thing I noticed is that the horizon line is not level. This is an easy fix. The exposure looks good, but please indentify what, if any, post-production you have applied.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Colin,

The exposure might have been worth half a stop less for the sake of the sky, just to have given more blue, but it's not actually blown.

The sloping horizon is a bit of a sin though

I do like the composition and arrangement of the timbers.

Cheers,

[GEORDIE]

Thank you for your interest,I did a bit of cropping but being restricted to basic editing facilities I couldn't figure what to do about the horizon. Good news for me is I have been today given photo shop elements 7 which should help when I figure it out.
Cheers Colin.

[GEORDIE]

Thank you for your wise words. The horizon did bother me but the basic editing tools I had did'nt help. However I was given photoshop elements 7 today so I can have a lot of fun with that.

Cheers Colin.

[kdoc856]

Hi Colin,

Congrats on a nice image and getting PSE. There are MANY great video tutorials on PSE (I wouldnt waste much time just trying to read about it-it just doesnt stick). I'd also encourage you to latch onto one person's videos rather than sampling from multiple sources early on- they often accomplish the same thing through slightly different techniques, and it can become a jumble. I have greatly enjoyed Matt Kloskowski's offerings. Unless my recall is faulty, you have to get to PSE 8 to get layer masks without a workaround, and these come in quite handy, but PSE 7 is a great start.
Best of luck

Kevin

PS: PSE is going to take a while to get decent with it. Lightroom 4 is superb, easy to learn and blends seemlessly with PSE when you need it. I'd start with that, (and shooting in RAW) as you learn PSE-for most shots, Lightroom will be all you need, and it is surprisingly inexpensive. Hope this helps

[DanK]

The tilt is easy to fix in any software I have used.

I'll throw in one suggestion: think about where you want the horizon line. People often center it, but more often than not, that is not the best place to put it. As a starting point, try the rule of thirds, placing it either 1/3 or 2/3 down from the top. then play around and see what you like the most.

[GEORDIE]

Thank you for taking the time to help me out very much appreciated.
Colin.

[GEORDIE]

Very happy to take your advice I am relatively new to photography so it all helps.
Colin.